Another character in the book is Boo Radley, He is a man who stays in a run down house at the end Scout’s street. He is a mystery to all the children who live in that street, but he saves Scout and Jem from Mr Ewell, the father of the woman Tom Robinson was said to rape.
The first character I will talk about is Scout, the nickname of Jean Louise Finch. She is the main character of the book, but I do not think she is the heroine of the book but she does have some heroic features.
“Hey, Mr Cunningham. How’s your entailment getting along...?” Here Scout has just ran to Atticus, who was defending Tom Robinson. Atticus had been surrounded by angry men who were trying to get Tom. They were stopped by Scout, who has know idea of what is going on. I think her being a child is her heroic value, as she stopped this fight without knowing. The first character of the book I think is one of the main heroes is Atticus. Atticus is father to Scout and Jem, he is a lawyer and in the story he defends Tom at court. Atticus is noble and intelligent.
“If spitting in my face and threatening me saved Mayella one extra beating, that’s something I’ll gladly take…” Here, Atticus is noble because he could of stood up to Bob Ewell, but does not because he would rather relieve some of Bob Ewells anger by letting him spit on him, than let Mayella get beaten up. I think this is noble.
“Jem and I found our father satisfactory…” Atticus is a good father but does not show it much emotion. Atticus is also very strong mentally, but is much weaker physically.
“Everybody in town’s father was playing, it seemed, except Atticus.” Here Jem does not want to go and see the football being played, because Atticus was too old to play.
“A court is only as sound as its jury, and a jury is only as sound as the men who make it up. I am confident that you gentlemen will revise without passion the evidence you have heard, come to a decision…” Here Atticus is summing up his views of the case because before he is saying that all people make mistakes and in this quote to make their decision without their prejudices and that they will know that if they sentence Tom to be hanged, it is because of their prejudices not because of the evidence.
Tom is the next person I think is partly a hero. Tom Robinson is the black man Atticus defends in court, as Tom had been accused of rape. In the novel Tom is a symbolic figure to the way black people were discriminated against by white people, in the 1930s, he shows how hard American life was for a black person. When Tom was in court he was brave, truthful and in a dignified way did not hesitate to stand up to the whites.
“I felt right sorry for her, she seemed to try more’n the rest of ‘em.” Tom says this when questioned by the other lawyer, Mr Gilmer. He always answers the questions truthfully and never tries to cover up for what he has not done. In the end Tom is found guilty. Tom, I think, is a hero because he acts as a representative of black men – comes across very well.
The last person I think can be considered a hero is Boo Radley. Boo, or Arthur, Radley was talked about at the start of the book by Scout and Jem. To the children Boo is a scary man who only comes out at night frighten them. Their childish rumours describe him as “six and a half feet tall, judging by his tracks; he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch…” This information is from the town gossip, who turned out to be very unreliable. Boo actually was a very nice person as we find out at the end of the story.
“I led him to the front porch, where his uneasy steps halted. He was still holding my hand…” Here Scout is taking Boo home because they had just been in at Scout’s house seeing Jem. Jem had been in a fight, defending Scout and himself, against Mr Bob Ewell, in the middle of the fight Boo jumped in and helped Jem. In the end, it was decided, Mr Ewell tripped and fell on his knife he was using as a weapon and Boo carried Jem home as he had been knocked out.
“The man was walking in staccato steps of someone carrying a load to heavy for him…” Here, I think, Boo is a stereotypical hero, as is very strong.
I will now discuss my conclusion to the question “Which character best describes to be the hero in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee? I think Atticus, Tom and Boo are all equally heroic but definitely not in the same ways. Atticus is a person who is very strong mentally, which is his heroic quality. I think Tom is a hero to all the black people who have lived and respected the whites with no questions asked. Whereas Boo is the physically person and that is why he is a hero.
I think these three characters are all equally heroic, and I do not think you could choose between them.
